Apple and Nasdaq Experience Outages

Outages happen, just ask some users of Apple iCloud and anyone trading stocks on the Nasdaq, as both experienced outages today. Though the two outages do not seem related in any way, they both affected millions of users.

A number of iCloud users experienced an estimated six-hour outage that affected cloud programs such as iMessage, Photostream, Documents, and other iCloud enabled services.

Reports for this outage along with the Nasdaq outage, which lasted approximately three hours and completely shut down trading, have not yet confirmed if either was due to hacker, denial of service, or any other type of security breach.

Many high profile companies have found themselves under attack from malicious groups looking to target high profile websites and services, in an attempt to disrupt and hurt businesses.

Cloud providers are fighting back, finding new and better ways to detect and secure networks from cyber attacks. With early warning systems and more hardware and software manufacturers tackling the problem, high profile outages have been slowing.

These news worthy outages should not discourage businesses or providers from moving to or recommending cloud solutions. The reality is any technology whether hardware, software, or cloud based, can experience issues.

The best thing for MSP’s and IT solution companies to do is to inform their customers of the expectation of any service they provide. Educate customers about the pro’s and potential con’s, and provide honest insight into experiences.